Can routinely collected education data highlight children with autism and reveal structural inequalities

The early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) is a mandatory assessment taken by teachers for all children within the UK at the end of the school reception year (at age 4-5 years). The EYFSP assesses a child’s development in a wide range of areas, and its more recent binary measure, called the good level of development (GLD), has been shown to be predictive of a range of developmental outcomes, including academic attainment, special educational needs, absenteeism and NEET status (not in education, employment or training). While previous research has shown that the EYFSP total score, and an autism specific sub-score (5 items related to the autism diagnostic criteria) can highlight those children at risk of having an autism diagnosis in the future, it is not yet established whether the GLD can flag children who are likely to have undiagnosed autism. Additionally, the GLD has been shown to be able to identify structural inequalities in other areas such as with NEET, this study will therefore examine how sex and gender influence the relationship between GLD and autism diagnosis.